Harris County Applicants

[ProjectS15]

keep your heads up guys
You'll have your plastic in hand sooner then you know it

[knightx]

mine went active as of this morning (and of course i logged in about 12 more times just to make sure it wasn't an OOOPS moment by the site administrator) LOL

in the heart of harris co. (pasa-deer park)

now let's see if the usps does any better on a time trial

[JimBob]

How do people know that it is Harris country with the delays?

Mine has been 60 days now (renewal) and am curious what the general problem is.

[txfnp01]

Hello Harris County Apps.,
Don't get down! It took me 144 days to get mine thru the system. :)
The problem I found out that there is only 1 deputy processing all paperwork for Harris County. This takes time. This person was reassigned during IKE and nothing moved until this person was put back on the desk. Federal / State / County pile up's at its best.
Sooner or later you will get it. Good Luck!

txfnp01

[steve_stock]

From the conversations that I've had with DPS and my District Representative, Harris County has one DPS officer performing background checks. This lone officer was pulled from performing said checks after Ike and his BC duty position was left vacant creating the huge backlog. He is now back at his desk and doing BC's. My complaint to this and I've sent letters to Sen. Dan Pattrick and my District Rep. Debbie Riddle asking how we can have only one person doing our checks. For the last two years Harris County alone averages 15.5% of Texas' applications or around 13,500 applicants per year. Even if every application was only a renewal, the state would receive $70 per application. This means that at a MINIMUM Texas DPS receives $922,200 from Harris County. If half of the applicants are new then they receive $1.4 Million from Harris County applicants alone each year.

To make things worse, this is part of a reply that I received from her office.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.......

As the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Rep. Riddle just this week completed a round of recommendations and funding that would do the following:

1) Appropriates nearly $80 million to DPS to restructure the driver's license division and information technology architecture throughout the department to improve efficiency and

2) Appropriated $20 million for the purchase of 450 additional vehicles for DPS, which makes the entire department vastly more efficient and decreases need for overtime and reduces turnover.

We are also currently considering DPS payraises, which will help decrease turnover.

Now, because of the tight economic situation, we were not able to fund specific strategies that benefitted CHL programs and only CHL programs, because we had to consider the largest bang-for-the-buck available. However, by increasing the efficiency of the entire department, limiting turnover, helping DPS recruitment new troopers, adopting mainstream business practices, and employing civilians to do paperwork jobs, the theory is the CHL divisions will also become more efficient because DPS will be able to focus more of the freed-up resources towards neglected areas like CHLs.

......

Sincerely,
Jon English
Chief of Staff
State Representative Debbie Riddle
phone: (512)-463-0572
fax: (512-463-1908
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768-2910
jon.english@house.state.tx.us

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Basically, he is telling me that even though the CHL fees taken from us could easily pay for more BC personnel, we will get none of the $100 MILLION dollar pie.

[steve_stock]

I also thought that it was ironic that Mr. English used the words "because of to the tight economic situation" right after he told me he was going to spend $100 Million of our tax dollars for the DPS on everything except what I was complaining about.

[BriN]

Hello Harris County Apps.,
Don't get down! It took me 144 days to get mine thru the system. :)
The problem I found out that there is only 1 deputy processing all paperwork for Harris County. This takes time. This person was reassigned during IKE and nothing moved until this person was put back on the desk. Federal / State / County pile up's at its best.
Sooner or later you will get it. Good Luck!

txfnp01

Personally, I get what the problem is but that is the exact part that is irritating me. It does not make any sense to have one trooper handling this demand especially since there was a signifant backlog created with IKE. Surely, there are a trooper or two who would be willing to work a little OT to help catch up on the backlog. Surely, someone somewhere can come up with some solution to catch up. It seems they are waiting for people to stop applying for a CHL in order to catch up with the backlog and I see no reason that is going to happen any time soon. There has to be some person bright enough to figure out a solution. We all paid the same fee and we are working under the same statute that provides the guidelines for how this works. DPS needs to learn how to adapt and overcome.

I propose that if they do not complete the application in the time provided by the statute , the applicant should receive a refund of at least half of the fee. I bet someone would put the appropriate attention to the issue if there were $$ at stake.

[sgtredneck]

I've waiting 85 day's now hopefully not to much longer.

[Pete92FS]

The best result still seems to be getting your State Rep. involved. On day 72 I faxed my Rep. Beverly Woolley and had my plastic in hand 15 days later on Jan. 26 2009 for a total of 87 days from the time I received my PIN. This is a lot faster than the Harris Co. average. A friend at work received his this time last year and it took him 120 days so the "IKE" excuse is just that - an excuse. Harris County has always been notoriasly slow.

Good luck to all.

Pete

[BriN]

Currently on day 92 and just heard from DPS that they are STILL waiting on the background checks to be returned... and of course there is no one who can check with anyone in Harris County about the status of the background check.

I have previously contacted both my State Rep and State Senator and apparently, it hasn't been very helpful in getting mine moving.

[JonK]

So now I am on day 99 and I was just told that they are waiting on my background check. Of course a few weeks ago I was told my license was being printed. I really want to know what is going on in Harris county. All the excuses seem like just that EXCUSES. I have already contacted my rep and senator as well and it seems to have done nothing. It is sad when DPS can't even give a straight answer on the status of an application.

[JonK]

Follow-up, I just spoke to DPS and my Senators office via conference call. DPS has my background check complete and they are rushing the printing of my license. I was promised that as soon as it comes in (Friday is the day they expect it back), it will be overnighted to my house. I will let everyone know how it goes. But I must say 102 days on Saturday is still 42 days too long.

-J

[rob845]

LOL this is sad! I just sent mine in last friday.... I know 60 days is a long shotto get it back but over 100 is just sad!!

[JonK]

So, my saga continues...I am now at day 104 and yes in Harris county. I was told that my license would be printed last week and then next day mailed to me for arrival on Saturday but NO. That was wrong info. Today I was told that my license is still at the printer and that DPS has no way to know when the printer will be done but it should be in my hands this week. I will believe it when I am holding it.

-JonK

[tesla]

I'm up to 107 days, Harris and Brazoria counties. I have contacted my senator and representative with no results so far.

Class: 01/24/09
Mailed: 01/26/09
Check cashed: 02/02/09
PIN Received: 02/26/09
Completed: --/--/--
Plastic In Hand: --/--/--